Our solution there to what was dubbed ‘The Combat Issue’ was to introduce ways combats could be truncated or circumvented so as to maintain the momentum of the overall Clockwork Setpiece. Now we covered this issue in the last piece, albeit in a different context. You are even further restricted if there is some binding theme (such as fighting through hell and therefore only facing Devils in combat). Even though the exact layout of the ‘Roguelike Challenge’ is randomised you as the DM still need to deliver a balanced experience, which in turn means there are only a certain few encounters you can feasibly run. A Roguelike, by its very nature, requires that the party complete the exact same fights multiple times. In spite of this, doing the exact same combat over and over is decidedly not fun. Everyone loves rolling dice, killing monsters and experiencing the thrill of a close victory. Put simply, combat is one of the most fun parts of D&D (5e has committed almost all of its design towards supporting the combat pillar of the ‘3 pillars’ model). If you’re still not sure what I’m talking about go and play something like ‘Hades’, ‘The Binding of Isaac’, ‘Slay the Spire’, or fuck it go and play the original ‘Rogue’ that gives the genre its name. The challenge is to make it as far as you can before you die, and eventually make it far enough into a run that you can reach and beat the end-game challenge (usually a bossfight). Usually the game’s content is somewhat randomised to make it so that each ‘run’ is unique. In simplest terms, a Roguelike is a kind of video game where dying and replaying the game in some form constitutes the core gameplay loop. Look, I’m really hoping I don’t have to spent too much time defining this. This is because in that last piece I didn’t discuss or explore one of the most common forms of the Clockwork Setpiece: The Roguelike. I’ve recently re-explored the concept in one of my campaigns and have found I have more yet to say on the topic. This is a convenient catch-all terms used to describe things like time loops and other resetting challenges. So a little under a year ago I posted This Piece that discussed something called the ‘Clockwork Setpiece’.
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